


Live (for me)

by MnMJax



Series: Everybody Lives AU [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety Disorder, F/M, Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright Spoilers, First Kiss, Love Confessions, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, completely disregarding their s support
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-23
Updated: 2016-11-23
Packaged: 2018-09-01 19:57:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8636119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MnMJax/pseuds/MnMJax
Summary: "It's the duty of a retainer to protect their charge, even at the cost of their own life.""You are too valuable for me to lose.""Why does it matter?""Because I love you!" Birthright Chapter 15 divergent, in which Corrin saves Kaze before he falls into the gorge.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I was emotionally compromised by the ending of chapter 15, and wrote this to make myself feel better. I didn't think I needed to get the supports with him again since I married him in my revelation run, but then he went and DIED and I was so happy I had a battle save from chapter 14, it gave me the time to save his self sacrificing ass by support grinding all the way to hell. But this was an idea I had because Corrin can turn into a dragon, so naturally this was where my brain went with it.

_“Please forgive me, Lady Corrin. I am only doing what is necessary.”_

Corrin couldn’t think in the moments after Kaze’s words reached her. She acted before anything else, feeling the hum of her dragonstone as she pushed away from Hinoka. She transformed midair as the land Kaze was clinging to crumbled, only barely catching him before he’d have been lost forever.

She didn’t feel anything in the moment, not the air rushing past her wings as she flapped to keep balance, not the bladed gauntlets on Kaze’s arms slicing into her scaled hand, only the fear clawing at her heart as she pulled him to safety. She reverted back to human when she was sure they were well enough away from the landslide, but that was as far as her thought process had gone.

“ _Why_ would you do that to yourself?!” she demanded, clinging to the ninja as tightly as she could. Her hand throbbed, and she was sure she was bleeding into the back of Kaze’s shirt, but she couldn’t bring herself to care in the face of what had nearly happened. “Please, _please_ , never do that again,” she pleaded weakly.

“Lady Corrin...” Kaze sounded like he was going to argue, despite offering her comfort. His hands gently rubbed her shaking shoulders, holding her as tightly as he deemed appropriate.

“ _No_ ! You’re too important, I can’t lose you!” she sobbed. She could almost feel the silent question, _why_ ? _Because I love you, you insufferable self-sacrificing fool_ , she almost said. She could hear Azura and Hinoka trying to talk to her, or maybe each other.

Corrin wasn’t quite sure when they managed to pry her off Kaze, only that they implored her to continue on - they were nearly at the peak of mount Garou now, it was only a little further. Sakura treated her hand the best she could, but the damage from Kaze’s arm guard remained as a nasty, sensitive scar. The new nerve endings were tense and throbbing, but she could hardly pay it any mind. The conflict with the wolfskin still pained her, a persistent ache in her heart at what they’d had to do, but it was overshadowed by what had just happened. Kaze had pledged his loyalty to her, as her retainer, but he’d nearly _died_ , and felt that he deserved it for an imagined wrong. He was a child as much as she was when she was taken, that he should feel responsible for her kidnapping was absurd.

When they had time to rest in the astral plane, she planned to tell him as much. She may have even considered telling him of her feelings, however briefly. That was a foolish notion, however, even if he hadn’t pledged himself to her as a retainer. He likely didn’t feel the same, and she didn’t want to put a strain on their friendship anymore than her dramatic reaction to his near sacrifice may have already.

When she was finally able to go to her treehouse to rest, Corrin realized the choice had been taken out of her hands, whatever it may have been. She’d wanted time to consider what to say, _how_ to tell Kaze or even if she should, but he was waiting for her when she got there.

“Lady Corrin, I... I’m sorry to intrude. I brought a salve, to help with your wound.” he seemed to stumble over the words, and this was evidently the first place he’d come to - he hadn’t even changed out of the bloody clothes she’d ruined earlier, and her blood had dried on his arm guard.

“Permit me to assist you in treating it?”

* * *

 

Corrin marveled at how the hands she’d seen bring so much death upon their enemies could be so gentle, as he applied the salve to what was left of the wound in her hand. Focused as he was on his task, she allowed herself to simply look at him. Even as enemies, as they’d fought in front of Garon, she’d thought he could be attractive beneath the blood and bruises he’d sustained in captivity.

Looking at him so many months later, she knew she’d been right. While he was endlessly charming and diplomatic, she could see passion in his violet eyes just beneath the surface. She saw it when he and Saizo argued over this or that, when he protected her from their enemies, she’d seen it when they fought in Castle Krakenburg.That passion had drawn her to him initially, and the mystery deepened when she found he didn’t consider himself a good man. But he’d gotten upset with her persistence, as anyone would, and so she’d backed off even as her own feelings for him grew. Corrin wondered now if she shouldn’t have, if he would have been so willing to sacrifice himself if she had found out and subsequently forgiven him sooner.

“I’m sorry...” she whispered, and the gentle ministrations on her hand halted, startled.

“What could you possibly have to apologize for, Lady Corrin?” Kaze asked, surprise evident in his voice.

“You grew up and  lived your life believing you were responsible for my kidnapping. I’ve been so insensitive in my questioning, if I’d known, maybe today would have been different with the... landslide. Maybe...”  _Maybe you wouldn’t have thought you needed to die to make up for an imagined sin_ . “If I had lost you today, if you had fallen,” Corrin tried to continue, her voice hitching on the last word. “And if you had died believing you _deserved it_? I couldn’t live with myself.” she admitted.

Kaze was silent for a moment as he wrapped a bandage around her hand - for comfort’s sake, apparently - and didn’t speak until he’d completed his task. “It does us no good to dwell on what-if’s in life, milady. I’m certainly grateful you saved me in any case, even if I do not feel I deserved it.”

“Stop talking like that,” Corrin scolded him softly. “I can’t stand it, the lack of... of regard, for your life.” she tripped over the words, unsure of how much she was willing to disclose. _Do I tell him, do I keep it to myself? What do I do?_

“But I-”

“You are too important for me to lose,” Corrin interrupted. “And though I don’t see it necessary, if you need to hear me say it? I will. _I forgive you, Kaze_. You don’t need to do this in some misguided bid for forgiveness. Even if you did, you repaid me a hundredfold by returning me to my family in Hoshido.” she insisted.

“The duty of a retainer is to protect their charge, even at the cost of their own life.” Kaze reminded her. His ever-patient voice was usually calming, but now it was only infuriating.

“I don’t _want_ you to give your life for me! I want you to live!” Corrin exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air in her frustration. Angry tears gathered in her eyes as much as she tried to blink them away, it was a losing battle.

“Why does it matter?”

Corrin actually stomped her foot, seeking an outlet for her frustration. “Because I’m in love with you, you _idiot_!”

The treehouse rang with stunned silence following her unplanned confession. Anxiety and shame prompted further tears, and Corrin shrank in on herself as she tried to contain them. Her lungs shuddered with every breath, and she dug her fingernails into her palm seeking some sort of grounding while she waited to see what Kaze would do.

Would he say something, would he leave without a word? Would he accept her love or reject it? The thoughts made her heart race unpleasantly, too many unknowns and nothing she could control.

She spent what felt like an eternity thinking about it, until a pair of hands tenderly unfolded her hand from its white-knuckled grip, relieving the crescent-shaped marks in her hand nearly deep enough to draw blood. One gloved thumb soothed over the marks, while Kaze’s other hand settled beneath her chin.

Corrin had no choice but to follow though she closed her eyes, afraid of what she would see if she looked at at his face. The fear, such a heavy weight settling on her heart, dissipated at the feeling of a pair of lips on her forehead. With a small, shuddering gasp, Corrin’s eyes hesitantly fluttered open.

“Forgive me if that was presumptuous...” he murmured against her skin, though he made no effort to remove himself to a more ‘proper’ space. “Given my position as your retainer, this is leaps and bounds away from being appropriate, but it’s only fair I tell you.”

Pulling back to look her in the eye, he continued. “I love you too, Lady Corrin.”

Corrin whimpered a weak sob as his lips met hers, wrapping shaking arms around his neck to pull him closer. She still cried, but now they were tears of joy as the man she loved held her closer and kissed her breath away.

When they finally pulled apart, Kaze pressed his forehead against hers and whispered words that would nestle in her heart for the rest of their days.

 _“My liege -- my_ love  _, I adore you with all of my being... I promise to treasure you forever, and to keep you in my heart. Always.”_

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first of (probably) many entries in a new series I've started because Fates is emotionally crippling me.


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